We are thinking about cruising on the CCL Paradise on 9/1. Our kids will be 2 1/2 and 4 1/2. We are looking at CCL since 2 yrs olds can participate in Camp Carnival. Has anyone had any experience with Camp Carnival and young children? I'm a little nervous looking at some of the negative postings.

I believe I posted to you about our experience on the Carnival board. We had a great time. As for the person there who claimed to be an employee, just keep in mind the term "disgruntled employee." Cruise employees have to work long hours, hours most workers in the US would never agree to and unions would go ballistic over. We've been on both the Ecstasy and Paradise with the kids and enjoyed ourselves each time. Carnival caters to everyone and your kids should have a wonderful time.

Carnival is a great choice for pre-schoolers since they do change diapers and are used to dealing with kids two years plus. September is a good time to go since there won't be quite as many kids on board since the older ones will be at school. There should be enough kids to make it fun but not the overwhelming numbers you can get during the summer vacation period.
We sailed on Carnival when my daughter was six and she really enjoyed the kids' program. They have a number of family activities too which we enjoyed. Most of their ships have splash ships too.
Carnival does have lots of late night action which may or may not be your cup of tea. The Paradise is a great choice because I found the Destiny to be too smoky at night in the public rooms but Paradise is smoke free.
Let me know what you decide.
Smooth sailing,
Luisa Frey Gaynor
Family Cruise Editor

I was just on Paradise on the 19th of May and the babysitting was terrible. For the $6.00 an hour they wanted my daughter to just go to sleep. She's 21 months old and doesn't understand why she can't play. They were very rude and now she's still trying to adjust going with anyone other then us. She's never been like that until after they got mad at her, I don't know what they did to her, but she screamed the last night we tried to leave her there. I would never do that again.

We have just returned from the Carnival and had a fantastic experience with Carnival. Our son is 4 years old.

I think if you use the Camp as a place where your kids can go for meeting other kids etc and spend as much family time with them as possible, this makes the experience a more positive one.

Most parents on our cruise only used the Camp from time to time. We were pretty much asked not to view it as a "day care center" and with the wonderful range of activities they had, I never felt that it was operated as one.

Our son has never been babysat and we were initially hesitant, but the Kindergarten atmosphere made it easy for him to get in to the fun etc that was offered.

I have kept our activity sheet from our Alaska cruise and this is what was on offer for 2 to 5 year olds.

Day 1:

8.30 to 9.15pm Family Welcome Aboard Party
9.15 to 9.45pm Family Ice Cream Sundae Making
9.45 to 3am Slumber Party (Additional Charges Apply)

**** we did go to the party but our son was mostly asleep. He participated in the ice cream sundae making but was still a little bit shy. We never chose to utilise the slumber parties. The Slumber parties were offered each night.

Day 2:

9.00 to 10.30am Life Boat drill - Fun House Closed
10.30 to 11.00am Discover the Fun House
11.00 to 11.30am Picture Bingo!
11.30 to 12.00 noon Play Doh
12.00 to 2pm CLOSED FOR LUNCH

**** we took our son down to see if he wanted to join in but he wasn't keen. He was a bit grumpy from being woken up for the life boat drill. I did stay with him for half an hour but he wasn't happy so we left. This was a sea day so we took him for a swim in the pool etc

1.00 to 2.00pm Family Playtime, for parents and under 2's only
2.00 to 2.45pm Computer & Playstation Time
2.45 to 3.15pm Popsicle Stick Fun
3.00 to 4.00pm Bears in the Wood
4.00 to 5.00pm CLOSED TO PREPARE FOR FORMAL NIGHT
5.00 to 5.45pm Toddler's Coketail Party
5.45 Kid's Formal Night Dinner
7.00 to 7.30pm Toytime

******* our son took a nap and dh wasn't feeling the best, so both missed the formal dinner. I actually went on my own because I still wanted to go and really liked the other people assigned to our table (3 single people in their 50's)

**** after his nap, our son asked if he could go to Camp Carnival! we got him something to eat and then took him along. We took the pager and thought we would get called back right away, but he loved it! we went and washed the show that was on that evening, which was pretty weird as we haven't really gone out alone together since he was born

**** once again, our son asked to go to CC. We took him after breakfast and he loved the Don't Eat Tommy and Bob the Builder activities. We then arrived in port so spent the rest of the day with him sightseeing etc

this is what was offered to those still on board

12 to 2.00pm CLOSED FOR LUNCH
2.00 to 5.00pm Supervised Play Time
5.00 to 7.00pm CLOSED FOR DINNER
7.00 to 8.00pm Native American Night Featuring Arts & Crafts, face painting, games and stories
8.00 to 9.30pm A night at the movies
9.30 to 10.00pm Chips & Dips

**** our son fell asleep after our long day out. I wished the Native American Night had have been held on one of the nights we were at sea...this would have been great to have gone to!

7.00am to 2.00pm Supervised Play Time
2.00 to 3.00pm Sponge painting and play doh
3.00 to 4.00pm Captains Hat and Ship Game
4.00 to 5.00pm Flower Power & Chocolate Crispy Making
5.00 to 5.45pm Closed for Dinner
5.45 Kid's Formal Dinner

**** we got VERY lucky here we had no plans to go to the formal dinner without our son, but he actually asked us if he could go to dinner etc with the other kids, so we had our first dinner out together in 4 years! *lol*

7.00 to 8.00pm Dress Up and Tunnel Time
8.00 to 9.00pm Happy Unbirthday Party
9.00 to 10.00pm Game Boy & Computer Fun